Attending this year’s AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, one of my priorities was to take in some of the rich variety of research-related sessions on offer. I was particularly interested to see how presenters would connect the disciplines of research and evaluation to this year’s theme, “Thriving Museums, Healthy Communities.” As I explored the program, I was struck by a consistent throughline in these sessions: how meaningful research can be a powerful driver in every step of a museum’s work, whether crystalizing institutional priorities, affirming the value of existing work, or sparking new programs and ways of working. This is certainly true when it comes to designing for and assessing areas of community impact like health and well-being. Without listening to the communities we hope to impact, how can we know our work is effective? Thankfully, this year’s program offered a number of compelling models for doing just that.

In the session “Activating Our Findings: Cross-Institutional Valuation of Visitor Wellbeing,” staff from the Barnes Foundation, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, and Walters Art Museum described how participating in a study on social value and well-being led by the Institute for Learning Innovation both substantiated and inspired wellness work at their museums. At the Denver Art Museum, the research led Learning and Engagement staff to identify well-being as a core strategic priority going forward. At the Walters Art Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the research validated existing wellness-focused programming, and at the Barnes Foundation, it inspired new programming. I was particularly interested to hear panelists share that the project encouraged cross-pollinating of ideas among research cohort participants, a benefit that I have also seen unfold in other cross-institutional research projects. This kind of collaboration helps us all to grow together.

This theme of research validating existing programs and inspiring new ones continued in the Big Ideas session “Social Prescribing: Exploring the Intersection of Museums & the US Healthcare System.” Research demonstrates that museums and the arts have positive impacts on well-being, and panelists Tasha Golden and Chris Appleton discussed how partnerships between museums, health practitioners, and third-party healthcare payers can bring these positive impacts to patients. For me, this demonstrated the power of research for validation, taking an effect museum professionals intuitively know is happening in their work and concretizing it in a way that opens us up to new partnerships and funding sources. This can also be true for achieving buy-in and unifying an institution internally, crystalizing outcomes like well-being as a priority to drive investment in the work needed to propel these goals forward.

Of course, research on a subject as broad as well-being is a big undertaking. Luckily, several collaborative projects are underway to help, including the one discussed in the session “Measure Your Museum’s Social & Community Impact.” Thirty-eight museums participated in the first national round of this study, the Measurement of Museum Social Impact (MOMSI) project, and the results confirmed the powerful social impact of museums, including outcomes in personal and community relationships, health and well-being, learning and engagement, and valuing diverse communities. In addition to affirming the value of work these museums were already doing, the data have driven institutional priorities, supported advocacy efforts, and built connections with potential new funders. The MOMSI project also resulted in the creation of a free museum social impact toolkit, which presenters from the project team shared in this session. It is also available on AAM’s website. They also shared the exciting news about the next iteration of the study, Museum Social Impact in Practice (MSIIP), for which AAM is currently recruiting museums for a new nationwide cohort. If your museum is interested in participating, apply here through July 15, 2024.

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Finally, the meeting also made space for discussing an essential but often-overlooked component of health and well-being work: institutional wellness. I was honored to contribute to this conversation myself, along with my co-presenters Jacqueline Jordan, Cory Garfin, and Linda C. Harrison, in the session “Research Insights from AAM’s Museum Board Leadership Survey.” We shared data demonstrating that museum board members and directors widely agree on the top areas that boards should improve their performance, including fundraising, outreach, and advocacy. Seeing your own organization’s needs reflected in benchmarks from the wider field can help to identify priorities for ongoing improvement, and we hope that the data shared in this session and in 2024 Museum Board Leadership: A National Report will spark conversations among boards and directors to foster that process. This research also found that there is a gap between belief in the value of DEAI, which both directors and board members widely view as important, as compared to actions meant to drive DEAI at museums, which are meaningfully less common. In this way, the data identifies next steps and next priorities, helping to set a course as museums continue to incorporate DEAI into their work.

Together these sessions paint a vivid picture of the impact research is having and will continue to have on wellness within museums and their communities. I left AAM 2024 inspired by the rich variety of research taking place in the museum field and excited to see what the resulting data will illuminate next. I’m already looking forward to what research we might see next year at AAM 2025 in Los Angeles, on the theme of Museums & Trust. Keep an eye out for the upcoming call for proposals so you can share your breakthroughs related to truth and trust with your communities.